According to Reuters, Apple's iPad 2 sold one million units in its launch weekend, surpassing the milestone almost 10 times as fast as its predecessor.

The iPad 2 went on sale last Friday at Apple, Verizon, and AT&T stores, as well as Target, Wal-Mart, and Best Buy. Large crowds were reported across the United States, with more than 500 people queued up at Apple's flagship San Francisco store and roughly another 800 at its Manhattan location. The crowds even attracted gawkers.

"Our field checks over the weekend indicate that the iPad 2 sold out at every Apple and non-Apple store we contacted," Ticonderoga Securities analyst Brian White wrote in a research note. "In fact, all the stores had worked through iPad 2 inventory by Saturday afternoon, and there were no new iPad 2 deliveries on Sunday."

White told Reuters that the iPad 2 could potentially have sold one million units in its first weekend, a feat that took 28 days for the original when it hit the market last year. Wedbush Securities analyst Scott Sutherland echoed White's prediction.

With the launch, Apple appears to have secured its number one spot in the tablet market for the time being, cooling the momentum that tablets from other manufacturers such as Motorola and Samsung were beginning to gain.

Apple is expected to retain 61 percent of the lucrative tablet market for 2011, according J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Moscowitz. According to Moscowitz, other companies will have trouble attracting customers the way Apple has.